Car chase teen given chance at fresh start

A few short weeks after Denzel Eric Charles Carlo turned 17, he made a lot of bad decisions.

Drugs were involved and it wasn't the first time he had been in trouble.

But there had been nothing in the Redbank Plains teen's history to suggest what was about to happen - a two-week rampage that caused more than $300,000 in damage and only ended after a dramatic two-hour car chase across Brisbane, televised live on TV.

Carlo spent the 10 months following his April 9 arrest in custody in an adult prison.

According to Queensland law, he is an adult, despite not being able to legally drink or vote.

Regardless of his state of mind when he entered prison, the teen who was released on parole by the Brisbane District Court on Wednesday had changed. At least those closest to him hope so.

For two weeks leading up to his arrest, Carlo, with a group of "ill-chosen" friends, broke into people's houses when they knew they would be home so they could steal their car keys. They then stole their cars and used the vehicles in ram raids across southeast Queensland, stealing cash and property, mainly electronics.

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Spencer Howson AM / PM Newsletter

Their downfall came when they stole two BMWs from a southwest Brisbane home.

Carlo, driving a stolen Black BMW Z4 coupe, and a friend led police on a chase across the city, while friends in the second stolen BMW did the same on April 9. Television news helicopters followed the two cars from the sky, relaying information back to police about which direction or roads the pair had taken.

The two cars were stopped almost simultaneously - Carlo in Forest Lake, his friends in a Mount Ommaney shopping centre.

Ten people were eventually arrested, the youngest, just 13 years old.

But Carlo, who faced his tight-knit family outside of a prison meeting room for the first time in 10 months on Wednesday was unable to give an explanation for his behaviour.

His family, which Judge Dearden described as "devastated" also had no answers. Carlo's grandmother went as far to say she could not reconcile the teenager who committed such destructive acts with the "most beautiful little boy" she knew him to be as a child.

But his grandmother also wrote to Judge Dearden of hope; hope that this destructive and drug-abusing teen had time to turn his life around as an adult.

Judge Dearden also spoke of hope.

He asked Carlo to stand and asked him if he had anything to say about the weeks which led up to his 10 month incarceration.

"Um, I've got nothing to say," Carlo said, almost shyly and a little taken aback.

"Yes I am," came the reply. For this answer, Carlo spoke loudly and clear. It was his most resolute answer.

Judge Dearden said he would take his answers at face value.

He lectured Carlo on the cost his destruction caused - to the community, his victim's sense of safety, the businesses he targeted and his family.

As Carlo fidgeted with his hands and seemingly forced himself to look at the judge, Judge Dearden told the young man his family had "despaired" over his actions and how, despite their love, support and care, Carlo had decided to throw it away.

"Those decisions you made, you made personally," Judge Dearden said.

He broke the news of his parole early, but said Carlo's perceived freedom came laden with the burden of responsibility - to himself, his family, his parole officer and his community.

"I hope you comply strictly with the terms of your parole and I hope you do yourself proud and your family proud," Judge Dearden said.

"But if you stuff up and it's very easy to do, you'll go back to prison.

"My hope and wish for you is that that doesn't happen."

Judge Dearden urged the teenager to commit to his family and his employer, to friends who did not commit crimes and to his future.

Setting a head sentence of three years, he warned Carlo that if he "put a foot wrong" in the next two years and two months (taking into account the 10 months he had already served) he would be choosing his own destruction.

"When I say stay clean, you really have to stay clean.

"If you end up in hospital with both your arms and legs broken, get your nurse to call your parole officer,” he said, adding that Carlo would need to take all aspects of his parole seriously, including the regular check-ins, if he expected to stay out of prison.

But as the many members of Carlo's family who came to court to support the almost 18-year-old - his parents, who clutched each other, his siblings and friends - Judge Dearden added one last note of encouragement.

"I wish you all the best with it," he said.

"I hope it works out for you."

Carlo turned to his father and nodded. But if he needed any more proof of his family's support for him, he could have asked the foyer court staff.

It took more than four hours for Carlo to be released. His father sat stoically, just inside the court house door, for every minute.